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Alluvial Valley Floor Findings <br />Pursuant to Rules 2.06.8 and 4.24,2, the Division is required to make specific <br />written findings on the effect of mining upon any AY F's within the permit and <br />adjacent area, The findings for the North Fork AVF are presented below. <br />Mining activity (construction of the loadout facility) has already disturbed <br />approximately 13 acres of land on the colluvial slope. No further surface <br />disturbance is proposed by the applicant. <br />1. Pursuant to Rule 2.06.8 (5 )(a)(i)(A)(I), the Division finds that the <br />surface coal mining operations would not interrupt, discontinue, or <br />preclude farming on the alluvial valley floor. Loadout operations <br />on the colluvial slope will not physically impact fanning <br />operations on the alluvial flood plain below. Ground water is not <br />present in the colluvium in the permit area and surface water from <br />above will be diverted around the disturbed area. No future impact <br />which might interrupt, discontinue, or preclude fanning on the <br />flood plain is proposed. Thus operations at Terror Creek would not <br />interrupt, discontinue, or preclude farming on <br />previously-undisturbed portions of the alluvial valley floor. <br />2, Pursuant to Rule 2.06.8(5)(a)(i)(A)(II), the Division finds that <br />the surface coal mining operations would not materially damage the <br />quality and quantity of water in surface and underground water <br />systems that supply those alluvial valley floors or portions of <br />alluvial valley floors. <br />Given the small size (13 acres) and nature of the disturbance, no <br />significant hydrological impacts are anticipated. There is minimal <br />potential for the quality of water supplied to the alluvial valley <br />floor via the Deer Trail Ditch or the Fire Mountain Canal to be <br />affected. <br />The canals are located upslope from the disturbed area. Irrigation <br />runoff and storm runoff will be diverted around the disturbance and <br />disturbed flows will be routed through a sediment pond prior to <br />discharge. The applicant has obtained water rights to Deer Trail <br />Ditch water totalling 300 acre-feet per year and anticipates a <br />maximum operational need of approximately 44 acre-feet per year. <br />Fourty-four acre feet is approximately .01'X of the mean annual flow <br />of the North Fork. <br />fie applicant's discussion of probable hydrologic consequences has <br />identified no anticipated changes in surface water quality, all <br />runoff from disturbed surface areas will drain through an approved <br />sediment control system. No material damage to the quality of <br />surface waters supplied to the alluvial valley floor is <br />anticipated, due to sediment control at the site and the fact that <br />the ditch which supplies the AVF is located upslope of the <br />disturbance. <br />-20- <br />